November 13-19, 2003

theater

Golden Showers

PEE-NUTS: Urinetown creators Mark Hollman (left) and Greg Kotis looked to the dark comic sensibility of Weill and Brecht for inspiration.

How the show with the unlikely title put the tinkle back in Broadway musicals.

by David Anthony Fox

So the title isn’t exactly My Fair Lady. Well, today’s Broadway isn’t 1956’s either. Today, Urinetown -- the edgy show with the gross-out name -- is a surprise hit, still running after two years. It’s the tale of citizens in a drought-ridden town who are forced by a ruthless corporation to pay to pee, and it has been called the most inventive, smartly satirical musical in years. (That Urinetown will play here at the elegant and staid Academy of Music -- on the heels of Starlight Express and Fame -- is a whole other kind of satire.) City Paper asked Mark Hollman, Urinetown’s composer and co-lyricist, how it all began Ö

Mark Hollman: The show really started with Greg Kotis [book writer and co-lyricist]. In 1995, he was on a trip to Paris, running out of money and rationing trips to pay toilets. He imagined the story might work theatrically … as a musical. So he contacted me. … We had worked together in Chicago in the late '80s, but had lost touch. Anyway, we both ended up in New York, and Greg asked if I would work with him.

City Paper: How did you feel about the marriage of musical theater and pay toilets?

MH: I felt fine about it, because the idea he developed -- a revolution against a greedy corporation, and the story of a young hero who falls in love -- struck me as perfect grist for a Weill/Brecht kind of work: moving, gritty, funny. I had admired them greatly for years. Because Greg and I shared a dark sense of humor, we knew the piece would be satirical and not quite on the level.

CP: So from the start, you approached it as a satire?

MH: In a sense, but I also wanted to approach it seriously from a songwriting point of view. I learned songwriting from studying the great theater shows -- the Broadway form, rather than opera or art song, always attracted me the most. Greg was more skeptical about traditional musicals -- he really wanted to send them up. I worried initially that we were coming from two different directions. But in the end, Greg came around to loving the form … and I felt comfortable with satire.

CP: That's interesting, because the show does go in different ways. Without giving anything away, there is a reversal, and the fable isn't as simple as it seems initially.

MH: The twist was Greg's idea. I think the point is, really, "a plague on both your houses." The do-gooders don't have it completely right, but certainly Cladwell [the show's corporate villain] doesn't either. Greg is an iconoclast --the message of the show totally speaks to him. It's how he views the world.

CP: Urinetown started at the New York Fringe, then moved to off-Broadway and finally to Broadway. Did you wonder whether the show would work as well?

MH: I had two concerns. First, we went from a dingy 150-seat theater to a dingy 650-seat theater. We worried that we would ruin it. … But actually, the show became bigger to accommodate the theater. I also wondered if we'd lose some of the edge. It's true that we get a different audience on Broadway, and that some people come to it for the entertainment value. We added a final dance encore -- there was concern that the first ending was too depressing, and that the show would be more successful if it made people laugh. In the end, it was a sensible decision, and I think it gives a nice finish to the show. … I always thought our strong suit was good tunes, good fun, the values of old Broadway. We had a shocking title, but that wasn't really the purpose of the show.

CP: What's up next?

MH: Two different collaborations: One is an original piece, very much in the Urinetown vein. We're also adapting a 1951 Alec Guinness film, The Man in the White Suit. We were approached to do it by a N.Y. producer … and the aim of that show really is Broadway. In both, I want to write smart melodies with strong lyrics: Gershwin, Porter, Berlin -- they're the models, and that's the goal for me, their tradition of craftsmanship. At the same time, I want to retain the edge. … I hope we can always keep that in our work.

Urinetown runs Nov. 18-23, $25-$85, The Academy of Music, Broad and Locust sts., 215-893-1999.

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